Hooked on Books

The German Girl is about a 12 year old Jewish girl named, Hannah Rosenthal and her well-to-do family that are living in Berlin during the war in 1939. The German authorities are in the process of rounding up the Jewish men first and deporting them to death camps. They are allowing some of the wealthier well known families to leave the country if they agree to hand over all of their possessions. The Rosenthal family along with 900+ Jewish refugees buy visas and gain passage on a transatlantic liner, the MS St. Louis, headed to Cuba. Originally Cuba agreed to accept all of the passengers but midway through their journey the Cuban President revoked the agreement, invalidated the visas and denied entry to all but 29 passengers, including Hannah and her mother. Her father was denied entry along with the others and the ship was sent back to Europe. The Captain, Gus Schröder, continued negotiations with other countries and the passengers were accepted in France, Belgium & the Netherlands. Many families were split up for years to come and some were never reunited. 

Hannah's story was told in parallel with a present day story of a girl named Anna, who lives in New York City. She receives a mysterious envelope from Hannah who happens to be her great-aunt and related to her deceased father. Anna and her mother travel to Cuba to visit Hannah and unravel the connections between their families.

Both girl's stories are very moving but heart wrenching. The author does a fantastic job portraying the cruelty and suffering that the Jewish families endured in Nazi occupied Germany. They suffered incredible losses that no one should ever have to go through. It's not an easy read but if you have any interest in learning more about this last chance voyage that was suppose to be the saving grace for many Jewish families then I highly recommend reading this book. 

*I received this ARC from NetGalley & Atria Books in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!